marriage

When Our Beloved Spouse Ascends

Posted on by jptanabe

Birth, marriage, and death are the three main events in one’s life. We all wish to know, is there life after life? When I was a teenager, this was one of my fundamental questions.

The process of dying for my husband Dietrich lasted about a year. When he was in and out of the hospital for chemotherapy and infection, one day out of the blue I asked him bluntly, “Are you scared of dying?” He answered in a very calm voice, “No, it is very natural.”

How could I imagine that death was also something natural for him? I could not even entertain the thought, “What am I going to do without him?” I could not imagine him going away now, not so soon. But somehow his answer satisfied me. Passing into the next world should be something very natural.

He knew there are three stages of life: The first 9 months in the womb is a world of water. In the earthly life we are breathing air. The last stage is in the spirit world. Like the baby who goes through the tunnel of the uterus to be born, we also go through a tunnel to arrive in the next world. There we breathe love.

The hospital discharged Dietrich because there was nothing more they could do, and the hospice care began. Before he passed, I told him:

“Do not worry. I will take care of everything. Things I do not know about. Things I never did before. Things I do not want to do. Things I am afraid of. Things beyond myself. How to figure things out without you around. Things left unfinished. But do not worry I will take care of everything. All the wrongs, I will make right. All the pains, I will heal. All the miseries, I will make them joys. Because you left me with a reservoir of true love.”

The day he passed we began a different relationship together. I continued to have a relationship with Dietrich. I could not see him but we communicated with thoughts and feelings. I sensed his presence at times.

Because my husband and I were so close during our lifetime, we used to share everything; we talked a lot; we were the other half of each other. So of course, I have continued to share many things with him since his passing several years ago.

One night I had a short dream of Dietrich. Someone said, “Dietrich is on the phone.” So I rushed to the phone, thinking he was still in the hospital. When I picked up the phone, I just heard the sound of his voice far, far away. The communication had a bad reception and I could not understand what he was saying. When I woke up, I thought the connection will be better next time.

I talk to him while looking at his picture. I write letters to him. Sometimes he answers me like a deep intuition, an emotion, a subtle presence, a certainty, a love sentence coming at me out of somewhere. Then joy comes into my heart as a river of peace, a sense of protection and affirmation of the eternal. Is it not the cherished hope of humanity that we live forever? That there is life after life? I began writing my thoughts down, in the form of letters to my beloved. And I was able to receive his answers! One time I received:

“I am thrilled that you are writing to me. It is even better than the telephone because it is written, and I can read it again and again, the writings of my most beautiful wife!”

We were able to communicate because True Love travels everywhere. I am not a medium but I have deep intuition and feelings. Through thoughts, inspiration, and knowing, somehow, we did manage to understand each other and send letters back and forth, because of the love we experienced here on earth!

My children also had some experiences where their father visited them, touched their lives in a way that was meaningful to them. For that I am so grateful.

Last year, 2023, we celebrated seven years since Dietrich’s passing. A whole circle has been accomplished.

For me, even if he lives in a different dimension, we work and live together, we talk together, we cry together, we celebrate together, because true love never stops. It transcends barriers; the vibrations and energies go back and forth between the two worlds.

It has been a learning experience for me to live alone but together with Dietrich. I feel his presence every day and he is sending messages. Love travels everywhere. So, for these seven years my mission has been to put his life’s work together and to open more widely the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven.


My new book Letters Beyond the Veil describes my journey after my beloved Dietrich ascended to the eternal realm, including many of the letters we wrote to each other during the years since he passed.

For anyone whose beloved spouse, or someone very close in heart, has already ascended from this earthly realm, I hope this book will offer comfort, hope, and inspiration. One widow who read it said:

“I know many lives will be touched and comforted by this book as she shares practical ways God has given her to navigate through the grief process, as she remembers the special relationship she had and still has with her beloved. … She has encouraged me.”


For couples who will inevitably face the reality that one will ascend and the other will remain on earth, I can testify that although the pain is real, the connection, the love is not lost. We remain connected through the “veil” until we are reunited in the eternal realm.

Precious Counsel

Posted on by jptanabe

When we were young and awesome Dietrich and I gave counsels or tips to each other in order to have a better and happy life. I still find some pieces of paper with helpful words!

Here are some of the words of advice from Dietrich, which I always took to heart:

One: Do the little things that mean a lot
(One day out of the blue I shine his shoes)

Two: Talk with a pleasant voice
(Am I frustrated, irritated, upset? impatient? Which kind of energy am I communicating? Is it better if I can learn to control my emotions and my energy and reflect love, forgiveness, and understanding?)

Three: Know how to listen
(Am I here when he needs to talk?

Four: Believe in your husband’s potential
(All men need to be encouraged and valued and trusted)

I will add that money did not buy me love, but service to others brought me happiness.

Also, I love this quote from sister Lucia of Fatima: “The final confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over family and marriage,” and my husband’s quote “the best therapy in the world is someone who cares about you!”

Have a blessed day!
Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

Love Letters for Valentine’s Day

Posted on by jptanabe

During the 40 years of our married life on the earth Dietrich and I wrote many letters to each other, and we kept them all. They reveal the story of our life together, the romantic beginning, the hard struggles, and the true love centered on God that deepened over the years into an eternal, sacred bond.

For Valentine’s Day this year I want to share some excerpts from our letters:

To Dietrich:

“When you looked at me for the first time, I could see God in your eyes. There was so much understanding, goodness, and very deep love. I was so moved at that moment. How happy God must feel when He is at the center of a family. God can express Himself fully through a family, and that man during his lifetime must experience three kinds of love. It will be a wonderful adventure together to reach perfection!”

From Dietrich:

“You are more in my thoughts than my studies, and I still find it hard to fully get back to my class schedule. It feels to me that Heavenly Father performed one of His miracles to brings us two together. My whole outlook on life is changed since I became a married man.”

When we visited our families in Europe, mine in France and Dietrich’s in Austria, we faced many difficulties.

To Dietrich:

“My heart was so very painful the whole day and I know your heart was too. One thing for sure is that our ancestors have to unite together too, and this is a very difficult process. The fights are not only between both of us but between different nations.” 

 Dietrich’s encouraging response:

“We both know that we will find ourselves closer to each other if we both serve the higher purpose. … So much I wish we could always be deeply united with the love of our Heavenly Father. We have to determine every day to walk the path of restoration together and this way unite our family, our ancestors, and our countries. I will be with you in your prayers. I embrace you with all my heart.”

Before he passed, Dietrich told me “I will be always with you, forever together.” And it is true – sometimes I receive a hug from him in the eternal realm!

Please enjoy this recording of a talk I gave about our love story. Click this link or click on the image below to play the recording.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

“Thank you for the hug”

Posted on by jptanabe

I wrote this letter to my beloved husband Dietrich a few months after he ascended into the eternal spiritual realm. It turned out to be the first of many letters I wrote to him, to communicate with him “beyond the veil.”

Today our son Chris called from India, where he is taking a trip, and he said: ”Please, Mom communicate with Dad today, as it is November 1st All Saints’ Day. The Celtic tradition says this is the best time to hear your loved ones, your ancestors from the spiritual world, as the veil is the thinnest at this time. Happy Day of All Saints, Happy communication!”

So I wanted to share this letter with you on this special day.

April 13, 2017
Dearest Dietrich,

Most beloved, I love you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the 40 years we spent together here on earth. It was most amazing. Happy times like Heaven on earth; difficult times like the pit of hell; amazing times like the world is mine; tearful times till there were no more tears. In health and sickness, I always loved you. I know you did too.

I have to say, we were always connected by a most special energy, like a rubber band. If we went too far apart this rubber band would not stretch more but made us return to the starting point. You could swallow my sharp edges, and I made your sweetness more salty. We had some good fights; you always forgave me. It took me more time to digest the difficult memories, but ultimately I did too.

So what is left is the true love we feel for each other, because we did always include our Heavenly Father in whatever we did. I think this is the conclusion of our beautiful life together on earth with our God whom we both love. Without this ideal our life has truly no meaning. I am so grateful that your last words to me on earth were: “I will be always with you, forever together.” This sentence gives me strength and new life as we are now in two different worlds, apart but together.

So, every morning when I get up after reading some spiritual texts, I pick up my phone and go outside in the beautiful creation as we did all our life. I say:

“Hi, this is Elisabeth, your beloved wife. I love you so very much. I hope you are well. I am calling from the earth all the way to the spirit world where you now live.

I hope you are happy! I miss you, I am sure you miss me too.
I do not hear you back, because the connection is not so clear yet, but one day I will. But I know you are there and we are praying together.

Thank you Dietrich for your love. Truly, true love will prevail.”

By the way, thank you for the hug I got yesterday in my dream. It was truly from you. I did not want to let go of that hug, but then I woke up and said to you, “Thank you for the hug.”

God bless you, Elisabeth

The Power of Two: Building a Culture of Heart

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This year 2023 will mark the seventh anniversary of my husband, Dietrich, passing into the eternal world. Also, September 1st will mark his 80th birthday!

So many anniversaries to celebrate and rejoice over! For me even if he lives in a different dimension, we work and live together, we talk together, we cry together, we celebrate together, because true love never stops. It transcends barriers, the vibrations and energies go back and forth between the two worlds. He said through a medium that he is still using the same bed with me.

Much research has been done showing that our two worlds are coming closer and closer together. So these seven years have been a learning experience for me to live alone but together with Dietrich.

Dr. Jennifer Tanabe and I have prepared a presentation of our work these past seven years

You can watch it here.

Please celebrate with us! Your support is so meaningful.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Elisabeth Seidel

Love and Life

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I enjoyed reading “Love & Life” by Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

She said that security in marriage comes from fulfilling the vows you made “To Love, honor, and cherish.” She also advises that repairing marriages is better that ending them. Children grow up best with a married daddy and mommy.

Finally, she said that if you want to improve your marriage:

  • Do not say anything to your husband that is not sweet
  • No bitching
  • No complaining
  • No whining
  • No nagging

Instead, be a girlfriend to your husband because girlfriends know boyfriends leave if this situation happens.

In my situation when I got married, I was dysfunctional. Dysfunctional because of my inheritance – spiritual or character traits accumulated in my ancestry that were not necessarily the best, my upbringing, my experiences in life, my shortcomings, my inadequacies to handle conflicts etc…my too strong emotions.

My husband Dietrich often said to me that I was irrational, or “Oh! You are so emotional!”

In my opinion, Dietrich was also dysfunctional. He did not know what to do with me when “I was irrational.” He also came to our marriage with stuff. He was not aware of the stuff he was carrying around.

We did not know how to deal with conflicts the best way at the time. We were both dysfunctional trying to make a happy ending with our relationship. Was it an impossible dream to come together?

We did three things:

1. We educated ourselves on how to resolve conflicts by taking marriage seminars

My husband wrote his doctoral dissertation on marriage and family.

2. We served and loved our parents

Dietrich intentionally and actively loved and served my dad and mom.

I was smart enough to know that a successful relationship with Dietrich was to absolutely reconcile with his German father, and unite with his mother. This I did with much difficulty, because as I said before our marriage was between two enemy nations. Through loving his parents, I loved his inheritance, his ancestors.

3. We had unshakable faith

Our secret weapon for both of us was our absolute faith in God, our Heavenly Parent. Because of our faith, the impossible became possible. He was persistent not to be deterred by any conflict. I loved it when my husband said, “I love you no matter what.” I was stubborn to cling to God, our Heavenly Parent. We never let go of our dream to be true love partners forever.

So, from dysfunctional we became workable, to wonderful, to true love partners for ever, finally to a sacred heavenly bond.

Over the course of our forty years of married life together, we learned to forgive, to love, to honor, and to cherish. We became eternal love partners, Beloveds, forever together.

If we could do it, you can too! Elisabeth Seidel

How shall we live then?

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When my husband was on earth, here and there in our daily life he would drop one word or one sentence that was very meaningful to me. I could chew on it for days.

I remember him saying that “HAPPINESS IS A LIFE WELL LIVED.”

How then do we create a beautiful life?

He also quoted Socrates’ constant question, “how to live the good life?” He said that the good life is accomplished if you live a virtuous life, if you live according to the virtues. This was the Greeks’ simple formula for ethical conduct.

In my experience in building a meaningful happy relationship with Dietrich, a life well lived was a life where we loved our neighbors. Service to others brought us happiness, caring for the world brought deep emotions towards each other. We knew that praying for others not only brought relief to the person prayed for, but deep joy in our soul.

Sometimes the closest neighbor was the spouse we had to love when we could not, but did. Sometimes it was the prodigal son or daughter, we thought is lost forever. 

We cannot make happiness on other people’s misery. The happiness of your child comes before your own. You cannot leave your family. This would be misery instead of happiness.

In other words, what brings a couple together is not only sex, but a common goal rooted in committed love. It is being willing to make sacrifices for the betterment of the marriage and family, and every day making choices by discerning right from wrong, good from evil, sacred from profane.

So to live well means constantly making the right choices, by developing our character according to the virtues and according to God’s principles until we become each other’s true love. We can never separate from each other as happy families make a happy world.

We were not part of the “ME First” culture, but doing things together for others we were better lovers, and we gave True Love to each other. We did create a beautiful life worth living. This is our secret treasure for eternity.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

PS: Here is Dr. Tyler Hendricks’ talk on Happiness. Dietrich and Tyler were colleagues at the Unification Theological Seminary and good friends. I hope you enjoy this presentation on “The Path to Happiness.”

A Christmas True story

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It was the end of the year 1976 in New York City. I had just come from France a few months earlier and was adapting to the American life, away from my hometown in the French Alps. and Paris where I had lived.

My job at that time was in a showroom in a French jewelry company on Fifth Avenue. That day I had an appointment with a chiropractor, but I never arrived there. In fact something happened that would change my life and destiny.

I was a bit late, and like all New Yorkers, I started rushing, in the streets. As the street light was changing from red to green, I was the first one running to cross the street. I never made it to the other side.

One car had the same idea to dash through the changing light. It hit me in the back, which projected me on to the ground and I saw the four wheels passing over me. I heard people screaming at the horrible scene. In this split second I screamed to God “Heavenly Father my life is for you.” I was surprised at this audacious sentence to my Heavenly Father.

In a dream state I felt the car was lifted over my body in order not to crush me. A band of angels were by my side; a heavenly presence surrounding me.

As I was laying on the ground, trying to figure out what had happened, the car driver came out of his car screamed at me and left.

Another young guy said he called an ambulance and one lady and other passersby stayed with me till the ambulance arrived. The lady said “I saw Jesus, and he saved your life.” These were words of love and comfort.

I did not see Jesus, but I felt a Heavenly presence, I felt the angels dispatched in New York City. That day I was giving my life for God and he gave it back to me.

Besides a serious broken arm injury and a few days at the hospital I was fine. I spent Christmas that year in a cast and was so grateful to be alive.

I always felt I had a life mission. In fact, a few months later, I met my true, forever love. It was a snowy day with snowflakes all around in the beautiful Belvedere estate in Tarrytown, where in the spring the four-leaf clovers grow. There was to be a marriage blessing, and I was there with my new husband to be.

This was my Christmas miracle. Thank you that I could share it with you.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

The Worst and Best Gift Ever

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Early in our marriage when my husband was studying for a PhD in theology in Toronto and my birthday came around, this particular day he surprised me with a gift. He must have been thinking hard what to get me. and he was practical.
 
When I opened my present, it was AN UMBRELLA! Oh no! Not this! How unromantic! Not that I enjoy walking in pouring rain because it was October, my birthday month, but I can buy myself such a thing. I just wanted something else, even if students are poor, or in debt, could not make ends meet. I just wanted something else.
 
Like what? Perhaps a dress, a blouse, a perfume, a necklace, an expensive ring? Chosen thinking of me his beloved wife. Women never have enough of those. A night at a restaurant, a get away from it all.

Given our situation, I could have toned down my expectations. But did not Mark Gungor, a marriage expert, say that to please a woman, “You need to love her. Die for her. Take her for dinner. Miss the game for her. Buy her jewelry. Be interested in what she has to say.” (I will let you guess his opinion on how to please a man.)
 
I love my husband to the moon and back, but choosing a gift was kind of hard for him. After that there were some improvements. One year I got an envelope with a card with loving words and 40 dollars. I have to confess then I got 40 dollars for my birthday every year for the next 30 years or more while he was alive.
 
Forty was a good number for him, because he loves numbers. He always said, “God loves numbers. God is a great mathematician.”
 
My husband is a man who never changed. I also liked that he never changed. I was his only begotten wife. One man, one woman. No adultery. True love never changes.


Every year I knew what I would find in an envelope: a special card with loving words written with loving care in a most elegant handwriting and 40 dollars. More gifts to redeem came along, like a body massage, foot massage done by him, restaurant of my choice, and one get away to enjoy within the year.
 
It got even better for our thirty-year blessed marriage anniversary: We went to Europe by boat (the Queen Mary) to visit our relatives (my idea).
 
One Christmas I dragged him to a department store to show him where the rings with precious stones were displayed. Because there were on sale, I got one as blue as blue can be. I always feel God’s love in precious stones. God made the beautiful creation for His children to enjoy. He wants everyone to appreciate the beauty He made for us. By now I knew how to talk to a theologian.
 
But my most precious gift was truly the undivided love.
Love between husband and wife does not fluctuate.
Love is a commitment.
Love is eternal.
 
My husband’s greatest gift was to love God, and to love me.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel

God’s Problem Solvers

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We Blessed Couples who have received the Holy Marriage Blessing are God’s problem solvers.
 
People are suffering here on earth. There is so much dysfunction and division. Sin is an addiction for most people. We are here every day to solve problems.
 
I remember when my husband, Dietrich, was counseling couples, he could always think of a remedy for their different difficult situations:

  • The first one was always to keep faith.  
  • The second one, go to church together. This acts like a protection. We always need protection every single day of our life.
  • Then, always pray together. This is our anchor, our stabilizer. Our assurance for Heavenly Parent to be with us.  

I do not like to eat alone. I know for sure my husband does not like to eat alone either.

Now that Dietrich is no longer with me on the earth, I wish I could just see him next to me again.
 
In fact, we Blessed Couples are supposed to open up the communication between the two worlds. Even though we are not mediums, we can talk by feelings, sending loving thoughts, and receiving joyful impressions.
 
Sharing heartfelt sorrows rejuvenates our spirit of love, because we need to function as a couple in two different worlds, always together. As Dietrich said “Beloveds, forever together.” This way we continue to be God’s problem solvers.

Your friend, Elisabeth Seidel